Antonyms: Opposites

Antonyms are word pairs that are opposite in meaning, such as hot and cold, black and white, and in and out. Words may have different antonyms, depending on their meaning for example, both long and tall are antonyms of short.

Below is a selection of 32 example pairs of each of these two types of antonym.

Graded Antonyms

Pairs of graded antonyms belong on a scale. For example, good and bad are antonyms. However, if an essay, say, is notgood, that does not mean it is bad. There is a whole scale including appalling, terrible, bad, poor, satisfactory, fair, good, excellent, incredible, etc.

1.

dark

light

2.

intelligent

stupid

3.

dangerous

safe

4.

evil

good

5.

beautiful

ugly

6.

best

worst

7.

clever

foolish

8.

early

late

9.

easy

difficult

10.

empty

full

11.

fat

skinny

12.

young

old

13.

happy

sad

14.

hard

soft

15.

last

first

16.

foolish

wise

17.

quick

slow

18.

warm

cool

19.

wide

narrow

20.

abundant

scarce

21.

joy

grief

22.

knowledge

ignorance

23.

lazy

industrious

24.

stiff

limp

25.

miserable

happy

26.

violent

gentle

27.

chaos

order

28.

soften

harden

29.

nervous

calm

30.

reckless

cautious

31.

luxury

squalor

32.

sweet

bitter

Complementary Antonyms

Pairs of complementary antonyms represent the two opposite possibilities. (There is no continuum, or middle-ground, as in the examples above.) For example, one is either married, or single.

1.

man

woman

2.

push

pull

3.

dead

alive

4.

off

on

5.

raise

lower

6.

forget

remember

7.

day

night

8.

sadism

masochism

9.

right

wrong

10.

absent

present

11.

against

for

12.

exit

entrance

13.

sink

float

14.

employ

dismiss

15.

married

single

16.

question

answer

17.

true

false

18.

send

receive

19.

attack

defend

20.

accidental

intentional

21.

former

latter

22.

depart

arrive

23.

exterior

interior

24.

extinguish

ignite

25.

solid

fluid

26.

thaw

freeze

27.

vacant

occupied

28.

inward

outward

29.

input

output

30.

exhale

inhale

31.

pass

fail

32.

read

write

Relational Antonyms

Pairs of relational antonyms are often considered as a third type. However, they are really a subcategory of complementary antonyms.

In this type of antonymy, there is a relationship in which the two opposites must both exist. For example, if someone is selling, there must be someone buying.

Relational antonyms describe the same situation from opposite sides. Here are 16 examples:

1.

servant

master

2.

husband

wife

3.

doctor

patient

4.

buy

sell

5.

parent

child

6.

borrow

lend

7.

predator

prey

8.

instructor

pupil

9.

above

below

10.

give

receive

11.

teach

learn

12.

come

go

13.

toward

away

14.

employer

employee

15.

customer

supplier

16.

divisor

dividend

Related Pages

Closely related to antonyms are autoantonyms, an intriguing class of words that are the opposite of themselves! See also: